Did You Know This About Ink?

Colorants, pigments, dyes – call it what you will, but ink is rather a weird and wonderful thing; with a rather weird and wonderful history. Used since ancient times either for drawing or for communicating thoughts, ideas and emotions, ink in its various forms has some rather fun facts associated with it. The way that ink is made, as well as the price of ink and other facts related to ink, are rather interesting.

1. 90% of ink made today, is made for printing and not for writing.
2. Ancient Indians were known to use ink in the 4th century BC – the ink was made from burnt bones, pitch, tar and so on. There is evidence of Chinese ink that dates back to 256BC – some early Chinese inks were made from fish glue.
3. Ink can be organic or non-organic. Some animals produce ink, for instance, octopuses produce a cloud of ink to deflect predators. Some inks naturally produced by animals have other uses as well. Squid ink is sometimes served as pasta sauce in fine dining restaurants and inks produced by some cephalopods could have medicinal uses a well
4. Non organic inks are made from soot, petroleum and even heavy metals. Not too long ago, inks contained lead; this has led to a destruction of some children’s books printed in the past
5. Inks were also made from natural materials such as resin of a pine tree, minerals such as graphite, from soot obtained from burning things.
6. We don’t think of ink as being toxic but it can be – it may not induce death, but it can cause skin problems, severe headaches and even nervous system damage.
7. A single ball point pen can draw a line as long as 4,000 to 7,500 feet
8. Ink can cost more than human blood! You read that right – by volume, printer ink is the most expensive fluid in the world; costlier than perfume and French champagne.
9. Black ink is not just black – it’s actually comprised of a whole rainbow spectrum of colors. To see for yourself, just take a non-permanent black marker and draw a line on a white coffee filter. Place this at the bottom of a glass and pour in a little water to see various colors surface!
10. People have tried all sorts of things to create invisible ink – ranging from lemon juice to semen!

Ultimately, liquid ink is a very interesting consumer product. Being that it’s currently the most expensive liquid in the world, you can always save more on printer ink cartridges by shopping at TomatoInk. So feel free to subscribe to our newsletter and like us on Facebook for special discount offers and much more.